The Who’s Roger Daltrey Reveals He’ll Never Tour Again: ‘This is The Last Time You Will See Us’
In a recent interview with The Times, Roger Daltrey doesn’t sugarcoat it. He shared about any potential other tours for his iconic band The Who, “This is certainly the last time you will see us on tour. It’s gruelling. In the days when I was singing Who songs for three hours a night, six nights a week, I was working harder than most footballers.”
He’s quick to joke around, but there’s a clear vulnerability beneath it. Meningitis nearly derailed him nine years ago, leaving lingering issues that make performing physically risky. “Every time I start singing in any climate over 75 degrees I’m wringing with sweat, which drains my body salts,” he admitted. “The potential to get really ill is there and, I have to be honest, I’m nervous about making it to the end of the tour.” His hearing, battered by years in factories and on stages, is fading and his eyesight too.
Rick Kern/Getty Images for The Who
The drive to push through with the current tour comes in part from wanting to give American fans a proper farewell. He said, “I want to give the songs the same amount of passion as I did the first time round,” and added, “I’m going to be 82 next year. Fortunately, my voice is still as good as ever. I’m still singing in the same keys and it’s still bloody loud, but I can’t tell you if it will still be there in October. There’s a big part of me that’s going: I just hope I make it through.”
Sixty years after I Can’t Explain, they’ve survived addiction, clashing politics and the deaths of half the original lineup. Daltrey sees their legacy as one carved out on their own terms. He said, “As to whether we’ll play [one-off] concerts again, I don’t know. The Who to me is very perplexing.”
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